Aiden Pearce
Aiden Pearce (also known as The Vigilante and The Fox by the media) is the protagonist of Watch Dogs. He is a highly skilled grey hat hacker who has access to the ctOS of Chicago using a highly specialized device given to him by Clara Lille, the Profiler. Because his actions led to a family tragedy, Aiden has taken to a personal crusade against the powers that be. His obsession with security, surveillance, and control borders on the paranoid and dangerous, extending to monitoring his own family (unbeknownst to them). History Background Aiden Pearce was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, on May 2nd, 1974.@watchdogsgame (May 02, 2013). Tweet. Twitter. Retrieved on December 12, 2013. It is implied that his mother took both him and his sister, Nicole Pearce, to the United States in order to escape their father. 2012 In 2012, Aiden Pearce, along with Damien Brenks, hacked into the Merlaut Hotel, owned by Dermot Quinn, in order to siphon peoples' bank accounts. Quinn, otherwise known as Lucky Quinn, thought he was being hacked for a video of Chicago's mayor murdering a woman named Rose Washington. He issued hits on Aiden and Damien to scare them into submission. While driving with his niece, Aiden Pearce's car tires were shot by Maurice Vega, a hitman hired by the Club. The car drifted, and shortly after, rolled upside-down. This killed his niece, Lena Pearce, and set Aiden out for revenge.Watch_Dogs - Story Trailer. Retrieved on April 18, 2014. 2013 Eleven months later, Aiden had tracked down Vega and interrogated him for the name of his employer. Vega claimed he didn't know their name and stated that Aiden was walking into something he couldn't handle. Aiden then raised his gun to shoot him but the clip was empty. Vega then attempted to attack him but Aiden subdued him with his baton. He then meets with his associate, Jordi Chin, who confesses that he purposely emptied Aiden's clip and had called the police to cover up the deaths of several Black Viceroys. Aiden then leaves Jordi to take Vega to a secure location while he escaped the stadium. After resting at his motel hideout, Aiden went over to Nicole's for Jackson's birthday. The exchange was relatively amiable, but then Aiden noticed Nicole acting distressed on her phone and hacked it, overhearing someone threatening to break into her house. After the call ended, Nicole hastily fastened the locks. Aiden expressed concern but Nicole tells him that he can't fix everything and orders him to leave. Aiden then tracks the number of the crank caller and pursue him. While in pursuit, he gets a call from Nicole, apologizing for her outburst and asks him to come back but some realizes what he's doing and insists that he let it go. Eventually he catches his target and hacks his phone, learning that someone put him up to this. He gives the information to his DedSec contact, BadBoy17, in hopes of figuring it out. Old Friends After Aiden broke into the ctOS centre in the loop, BadBoy17 was able to begin tracking down the source of the call. Meanwhile Aiden had his first face to face encounter with Lucky Quinn while carrying out a fixer contract for Jordi. BadBoy17 soon asked Aiden to meet him in person. Aiden agreed and discovered that BadBoy17 was actually Clara Lille, a female French-Canadian Hacker masquerading as a male. Clara updated Aiden's profiler with DedSec level system hacks and initiated an offical partnership between the two. Eventually Clara pinpoints the source of the call to an apartment complex. Aiden follows the lead and discovers that his former partner Damien is the one who ordered the harasment of Nicole. Damien tells Aiden to meet him before blowing up his apartment. Aiden meets Damien, who is heavily intoxicated, and Damien reveals that there was a third hacker at the Merlaut job, other than Aiden and himself. As he was crippled in the aftermath of the Merlaut job Damien proposes Aiden and he become partners again. Aiden however rejects him, since he blames Damien's insistance for the job to continue for Lena's death, despite Damien pointing out that Aiden's own investigation had 'hit a brick wall'. Prison Infiltration Troubled after his encounter with Damien, as well as the realisation that he needs Damien's information, Aiden visits Lena's grave and reminisces about a previous visit with Nichole. Aiden is then alerted by Jordi that a gang member from the stadium, Raul Lionzo survived, is incarcerated and is likely to reveal Aiden's identity to anyone who wants it. After interogating Lance Brenner, using Jordi as sniper support, he discovers that Angelo Tucci is planning to get Aiden's identity from Lionzo. Aiden eventually tracks Tucci down, after manipulating his neice Helena, and kills him before he can kidnap Lionzo. In order to prevent Lionzo from revealing his identity Aiden conspires with Jordi to sneak into Palin Correctional Centre the prison and intimidate the gang member. Once Jordi has alerted his contacts inside the prison to the plan Aiden pretends to turn himself in. Once stripped of all of his weapons, although he was allowed to keep his phone due to a corupt guard who owed Jordi, and placed in a cell Aiden escapes. Aiden procedes to sneak around the prison, hacking the security as he goes, until he finds Lionzo in the exercise yard. Lionzo however is lead to the basement by some corrupt guards and beaten while they demand to know the vigilante's identity. After neutralising all of the guards Aiden threatens Lionzo with an exteneded sentance if he reveals his identity to anybody. Aiden then retrieves his gear and escapes from the prison. Family Threats After the prison break Aiden is again contacted by Damien. Needing Damien's information Aiden reluctantly goes to a meeting place and waits for Damien. Instead Damien calls Aiden and hacks the areas' TVs to show himself in Nichole's kitchen. Enraged Aiden arrives at Nichole's house and after physically assaulting Damien discovers that Damien has kidnapped Nichole, although Jackson got away, and threatens to kill her in order to blackmail Aiden into retrieving a hard drive which will lead them to the third hacker. Worring about Jackson, Aiden locates him by tracking his tablet's signal. After neutralisign the fixers chasing Jackson Aiden joins his nephew on the train and arranges for Jackson's therapist Yolanda Mendez to take care of him until he gets Nichole back, although he lies to Yolanda and says Nichole is taking some time to grieve alone. Aiden is also alerted a possible lead in finding Nichole as Jackson, using a drawing on his tablet, tells Aiden that the men in the house were talking about Racine Boat Restoration. After hacking the ctOS centre in the area Aiden breaks into the boat restoration in an effort to find it's owner Robert Racine. After hacking an office computer and the security cameras connected to it Aiden overhears a phone conversation between Racine and Damien and discovers that while Racine did kidnap Nichole he doesn't know anything of use. Aiden then kills Racine and gets in a heated phone conversation with Damien, who refuses to let Aiden speak to Nichole. A New Base Appearance Aiden is a Caucasian male with green eyes, brown mid-length hair, and light facial hair. While having his mugshot taken, it is shown that he is 6' 1" inches tall and appears to be of mesomorphic build. In the trailers Aiden wears a grey, long-sleeve, zip-neck sweater, usually un-tucked, though his clothes can be changed to several other jackets of similar style. On top of the sweater, Aiden wears a modern, brown, knee-length trench coat. Aiden wears dark grey trousers and brown boots. He also has a deep, gravelly voice. Aiden also keeps a neckwarmer scarf tucked into the neck of his sweater, which he may pull up so that it covers his face up to the bridge of his nose. Aiden also wears a dark brown cap with a logo that can be debated to be either a stylized 'Nexus' logo or a fox. Abilities and skills Pearce is highly proficient in hand-to-hand combat, lethal and non-lethal tactics, offensive and defensive driving, gunplay, hacking, and freerunning. He can chain together actions in rapid succession such as vaulting over a fence while hacking an electrical relay box to neutralize a criminal. His hand-to-hand combat skills are shown to be a variety of both martial arts and street fighting techniques, probably learned through his career as a thief and former Fixer. He is also skilled in counter-surveillance, often shown when he is escaping various thugs, Fixers, and police officers. Consequentially, he is often required to escape from pursuers due to him being a wanted man. Pearce also has 'focus mode' which slows down time and allows the player (Aiden) to get a better shot or see what to hack. This has been confirmed to be representative of his quick reflexes and strong senses. Relationships Nicole Pearce Aiden and Nicole share a strong sibling bond. Aiden grew very protective of her after the death of her daughter, Lena Pearce. He feels extremely guilty and indebted to Nicky, despite her pleas and forgiveness towards Aiden as she wants to stop looking for the ones who murdered Lena, in fear of getting themselves killed. It has been shown that she is very confused and left out of Aiden's profession. Jackson Pearce Aiden cares deeply for his nephew, Jackson, and would even kill to keep him safe. He was shown to be very protective of him when his mother, Nicole Pearce, was captured by Damien despite knowing that living with his therapist would lead to danger. Aiden kills the loads of fixers in order to get to Jackson, however his actions led Jackson to fear his uncle. Despite this, Aiden still cares about him and does not want to repeat the mistake he did with Lena. Jordi Chin Aiden and Jordi have a love-hate relationship, though they irritate each other often, the two do somewhat understand each other and work well together. But despite their different tactics and ways of handling situations, the two are aware that they have to work together in order to get what they want. Jordi handles Aiden's needs by giving him ammunition and weapons such as sticky bombs as long as Aiden keeps his end by doing jobs for Jordi. However, Aiden is shown to be very assertive with Jordi when it comes to his moral implication, something Jordi understands to a certain extent. Clara Lille Although he initially could not trust her and, due to her DedSec codename BadBoy17, mistook her for a male before he met her in person, the two gradually form a close bond despite their initial interactions. T-Bone Aiden and T-Bone are allies. T-Bone will help out Aiden throughout the story. As seen in some trailers Aiden and T-Bone are friends. Murders committed *Angelo Tucci: Ambushed while on the way to the prison. (can also be knocked down) *Robert Racine: Killed during a car chase. (can also be knocked down) *Nicholas Crispin: Shot in order to steal identity. *Delford "Iraq" Wade: Killed in firefight. *JB "Defalt" Marcowics: Killed during a car chase. (optional) *Dermot "Lucky" Quinn: Hacked pacemaker, causing Quinn to have a heart attack. *Damien Brenks: Shot in the head. *Maurice Vega: Shot to eliminate loose ends (optional). *Various Fixers. *Olivier Garneau: Killed during the criminal convoy mission, Requiescat In Pace (optional). Behind the scenes Aiden Pearce's character first appeared in the E3 gameplay demo in 2012, where he was shown carrying out the murder of media mogul Joseph Demarco. Actor Noam Jenkins provided the voice for Aiden Pearce in the game, while Sébastien RouleauYour Questions for the Developers. Nikolas Schmidt in a Q/A with Watch Dogs Forum.net. Retrieved on April 18, 2014. provided the motion capture for Aiden's movement.Watch_Dogs - MoCap Session. Youtube. Retrieved on April 18, 2014. Aiden Pearce has been compared to Walter White, a high school chemistry teacher turned methamphetamine kingpin, from the hit-show Breaking Bad by Watch Dogs' creative director Jonathan Morin, and he even cited White as one of the main influences for Aiden's character. "When I think about it for a second, he’s the most self-centered motherfucker on the planet, right?" he said, speaking of Heisenberg (Walter White) in terms that could, it seems, easily be applied to Pearce as well. "And then I go back and I say, 'Oh my god, he’s awesome, he needs to win.' And what’s great about that is it’s true for all the characters in the series, right? It’s the same in our game."IFC (June 11, 2012). E3 2012: “WATCH DOGS” COULD BE THE “BREAKING BAD” OF VIDEO GAMES. IFC. Retrieved on June 1, 2014. Appearances *''Watch Dogs'' Trivia *Although Aiden is right-handed, he can use both his Profiler and a one-handed weapon simultaneously. *Aiden, as part of his hacking skills and need to monitor his family, is proficient in social engineering. *The broken "Z" on his mask is based off the logo of the game's original developer studio title, Nexus. Further more Nexus is the license plate (spelled N3X US) of Aiden's personal car, which he eventually gives to his sister to leave Chicago. *Aiden means "Fire Walker" in old Irish. *Aiden shares similarities to Ezio Auditore from Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed series. Both have lost family that were murdered and plan revenge. They also try and protect what family they have left. *Aiden has no legal job in the campaign, and no ctOS record of a legal job. It is assumed he lives off money he and his partner stole as hackers before his niece died. *All of Aiden's outfits are virtually the same as his cover outfit, although varying shoes and boots, and different sizes and patterns on his clothes. *When trying to find Defalt in dotconnexion, Aiden's profile comes up as saying 'got his niece killed' with the occupation "CRY SOME MOAR." This is one of the few times this happens in the game in which you see this happen. Other times include when he is masquerading as Crispin and when he is in jail. At most other times Aiden's face does not register on the ctOS network which could be due to him hacking it to wipe himself off. **When rolling over Aiden during dotconnexion, Aiden's info will not show errors, but instead he will appear as "Defalt's Bitch." * At the end of the game, once the credits are rolling, the player can see a video of WKZ News, interviewing Doctor Mendez, the therapist of Jackson. She comments a book will be written about Aiden, with the end of exploring his mind and personality. ** However, Doctor Mendez only met Aiden a few times in-game. It is possible that she had more encounters with him between Lena's death and the beginning of the game's main story. * Aiden is sometimes referred to by the citizens of Chicago as "The Fox" because of the stylized fox head on his hat, and the colors of his trench coat and sweater, which resemble that of a gray fox's coat. Gallery |-| Original Artwork = Watch Dogs Aiden Pearce Close Up.jpg| Watch Dogs Aiden Pearce Profile.jpg| Watch Dogs Aiden Pearce Profile 2.jpg| Watch Dogs Aiden Pearce Profile 3.jpg| |-|Screenshots = WatchDogsHacking.jpg|Pearce without his mask. WatchDogsHoodSlide.jpg|Pearce sliding over the hood of a car. WatchDogs1.jpg|Pearce hacking the traffic lights. WatchDogsMainCharacter.jpg|Pearce while wearing his face mask. ss vigilante takedown.jpg|Aiden Pearce taking down a criminal. Takedown.jpg|Aiden escaping the cops on motorbike. Aiden hacking a steampipe whilst riding a motorcycle, Watch_Dogs.png|Aiden evades the police. Aiden is being hacked, Watch_Dogs.png|"You are being hacked." Running across the L-Train, Watch Dogs.png|Aiden hacks a police Helicopter, while running on across a train. Confronting some thugs, Watch Dogs.png|Aiden confronts some thugs in an alley. CtOS takedown, Watch Dogs.png |-|Concept Art = File:Model_3.jpg|3D model of Aiden File:Watch Dogs Aiden Pearce Art.jpg File:WatchDogsAlexRossPaintingFinal.jpg| References ja:エイデン・ピアース Category:Characters Category:Characters in Watch Dogs Category:Main characters